Even the worries in the town over the demon were slowly seeping away. Stephanie, although she still couldn’t recall what happened that night in the forest, was alive and back to normal according to her parents. The town bustled again with energy, the cloud of suffocating depression lifted like a fading dream.
The bright lights of the festival came into view and Willow could barely contain her excitement. She felt like a child going to her first circus. The music of a band drifted over the roar of the truck, some Rock n’ Roll tune she recognized but didn’t know the words to.
They parked in a spot by headquarters and Willow jumped out of her seat before Lyonis could come around to her door. Her eyes were wide as she took everything in.
The entire town was here. Dressed in warm jackets and winter hats, they walked in groups to the booths and stands of the festival. They danced in front of the makeshift stage where the band performed. The scents of sugary cotton candy, spicy meat, and caramel apples tantalized her nose. For the first time since becoming a mature succubus, Willow wished she could still eat food. The last meal she’d eaten was a chicken salad. The thought was almost too depression to bear.
“It’s like a carnival!”
Smiling at her enthusiasm, Lyonis grabbed her hand and began showing her the festival. Dozens of brightly lit booths provided fun and games in the form of archery and ball throwing contests to win prizes of gigantic stuffed animals.
“How do you do all of this?”
“We have a planning committee actually.” She gave him a look that made him laugh. “It’s true. They plan it months in advance. We have an extra tax put in place on all of the local businesses to pay for everything. Locals volunteer, heck some even fight over who gets to operate which booths. It’s a lot of fun for everyone.”
Willow passed booths selling homemade scarves, hats, and silks where girls happily waited in line to buy. Other booths had homemade jewelry in the form of beaded necklaces, bracelets, and little earrings. She felt like a kid in the candy store and wanted to try a little bit of everything.
The next booth had her coming to a halt. Behind the table of the booth sat wooden shelves holding a variety of snow globes. Some had lights inside him with little figurines dancing or moving, others when shaken snowed down white specs over a replica of the town.
“You like snow globes?”
Willow’s throat tightened. The words in Papa’s will came into her mind. He left her all of his precious snow globes. The same ones he personally cleaned and cared for. He kept them in his study and his bedroom. All of them special to him, personally picked out or even made to signify a special memory for him.
Willow could only nod, afraid that if she spoke he’d hear the raw emotion inside her. He nodded and led her up to the booth. The attendant behind it was none other than Stephanie McLannahan’s mother, Nancy.
“Hello, Nancy. You have a great selection this year.” Nancy’s eyes lit up at the compliment from her Alpha.
“Thank you. Is there anything you’d like to look at?” Lyonis looked at Willow in question and she pointed to two different globes. One was of the town, the other a replica of this festival. Nancy grabbed them off the shelf and placed them on the counter.
Willow picked up the one of the town first. It was lovely, the details perfect. A dark wooden fence went around the globe where a thin line of trees to represent the forest sat inside them. In the middle of the globe was the town, covered in white snowflakes as if they’d just received a big storm. She recognized the pub, which even had a small sign over it that read The Wolf’s Den. The detail was superb.
“Did you do all of these yourself?” Willow said. Nancy nodded, a delighted twinkle in her eye. “They’re amazing.” She shook the globe and watched as the snow on the bottom lifted to the top then slowly drifted down over the town.
She picked up the next globe, this one displaying a festival not unlike this one. There were booths with small lights inside them and tiny figurines of smiling people. Children lined the game booths and adults walked hand in hand in a happy moment, their hats and coats keeping them warm in the otherwise snowy and cold looking environment. She shook the globe and white puffs snowed over the festival.
“I’ll take them both,” Willow said. It may just be something she picked up from Papa, but these snow globes were too precious to pass up on. With them, she would recall this time and place, this town, for the rest of her life. The happy moments encased in a glass globe of fake snow.
Lyonis pulled out his wallet and paid for them. Willow started to protest but he kissed her to shut her up.
“Consider it a mating gift,” he whispered for her ears alone.
Wearing a silly smile, Willow picked up her carefully boxed bag of goodies and strolled with Lyonis through the rest of the festival. They played all of the games, which naturally, she made sure she won. It took some maneuvering, which was totally not cheating, but she did it.
He looked down at her with heat in his eyes. “You can’t touch me like that every time it’s my turn.”
She looked at him innocently. “Like what? I didn’t do anything. It’s not my fault you can’t hit anything worth a damn.”
“Can’t hit worth a damn?”
He growled in frustration and kissed her hard on the mouth. He didn’t pull away either, but kissed her until her lips swelled and her toes curled. When he finally did pull away, she had to hold on to him or else fall on her ass.
“Just because you can’t win fair and square—”
Willow glared at him. “I can too. I just prefer to play dirty.” His eyes flicked down her body as if seeing her naked beneath the thick jacket and pants she wore.
“I guess that’s fine,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Come on, we’re doing it again and this time, no cheating.”
“Hold on a sec. I need the lady's room. You can pretend to beat me when I get back. And no playing without me,” she added sternly.
He gave her a cocky look that said he was already planning all the ways he could cheat and Willow went off to the bathroom. They kept the main office open so the bathrooms could be used in there.
As Willow entered, two girls left the bathroom giving her a happy wave. Willow waved back and stepped inside. Willow did her business in the first stall then washed her hands. The bathroom door shut with a bang and she yelped as she spun around.
“Oh, it’s you, Stephanie. How are you?” Willow placed a hand over her racing heart to calm it.
A horrible feeling came over her like a suffocating blanket. Her instincts shouted at her to run to get as far away from Stephanie as possible. Willow told herself that was silly. It was just a teenage girl. A girl who didn’t have any noticeable weapons or appeared to be any kind of threat. Yet still her muscles tensed, ready for action, her eyes refused to stray from the young girl.
Stephanie never looked at her. Her eyes stared at the opposite wall. Willow watched her eyes closer and fought the urge to go lock herself in a stall to get away from this teenage girl.
Her eyes were vacant, dead. Eyes no longer shiny with life, no longer blinking with any indication that she was alive, yet she stood there, unmoving. Willow shivered as a freezing cold chill shot down her spine. Maybe the girl was sick or something. Since when do sick girls not blink...or move?
“Stephanie, are you okay?” Willow swallowed hard over the cracking sound of her voice.
Stephanie blinked once. The movement was so fast that Willow wasn’t even sure if she saw it happen. The life of the festival outside was completely drowned out. No longer could she hear the giggling voices of girls, the robust laughter of young men trying to impress their girlfriends. Inside the bathroom was a room of death, a black void where nothing entered and nothing left.